How Austin Restaurants Feed Your Ears

The music selected to accompany your dinning experience is often carefully curate to improve the business' bottom line

By Kimya Kavehkar | Photos by Jessica Pages and Andrew DeThomas

Published: June 15, 2017

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At Geraldine’s, on the fourth floor of Hotel Van Zandt in the Rainey Street district, the music selection has to be performed with perhaps even more care, as the restaurant hosts live bands at the tail-end of dinner nearly every night. I find live music in a dining setting a nightmarish prospect and not only because of the volume. With living, breathing humans showcasing their art for you, it seems criminally rude to stuff your mouth with goat tartare and converse with your date instead of listening. It’s an obligation I'd prefer to avoid when splurging on a meal out.

On a recent Friday at 10:30 p.m., the trio Nomad City takes the stage at Geraldine’s. Despite the relatively late dinner hour, plates are still hitting tables, and service doesn’t seem to be slowing much. The patrons closest to the stage are clearly there for the music, but everyone else carries on eating and chatting, politely nodding along with the music or tapping their feet. Some people do turn to look at the stage, and they lean their heads together to hear each other better, but no one seems particularly disturbed or annoyed.

This casual and comfortable atmosphere is specially constructed by Lauren Bucherie, the director of music for Kimpton Hotels. When the space opened in late 2015, Bucherie spent every night of the first three months in the restaurant, evaluating the crowd’s reaction to the talent. “If I saw them staying longer for certain acts, I knew what they were enjoying the most,” she says. She made adjustments to the programming accordingly. “It just took paying attention to how the guests were responding in those initial weeks, and that’s really what made us decide Geraldine’s is groovier.”

She started with more electronic or Americana acts but realized that the diners weren’t responding favorably (surprisingly, country didn’t quite work either). She now favors R&B, blues, soul, and rock acts. “That stuff just carries really well here. You have to have a strong vocal,” she says. Plus having great sound equipment and engineers also helps keep the volume level just right. She’s hoping to bring what she’s built at Geraldine’s to Kimpton’s other properties in music-loving towns like Denver, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

The formula is different for every music designer, but there’s no perfect science for what will give every customer a great experience. I’m sure others who visited Old Thousand for the first time were charmed by the house party atmosphere—and I’ll be going there myself again to raucously celebrate future successes and good news. Imagine getting paid to make that mixtape for your eighth-grade crush, and you’ll get some sense of the experience of the creatives who pour their physical and emotional labor into these restaurant playlists. The best they can hope for is staying true to their concept and that customers will choose to linger over digestifs and dessert.

Speaking of sweet endings, Turner has a fitting metaphor for crafting the music experience in a dining space. “Just like a good recipe, it starts with the simplicity and purity of your ingredients,” he explains. “If I were to offer you fresh eggs, cream, vanilla, and sugar, the beauty of those four ingredients is the simplicity of their nature—but with those four ingredients I can create ice cream, flan, and crème brûlée.”

Play By Play

We asked four music programmers for five songs they’d include when throwing a dinner party. Here are their professional recommendations.